Professional baseball SSG Landers continued its 6-game winning streak and jumped to 4th place.
SSG won 7-2 with three home runs in the home game against the Hanwha Eagles in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League held at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on the 6th.
SSG, which was tied for 4th place with NC Dinos before today’s game, pushed NC to 5th place by half a game.
In addition, they continued their competition for a direct ticket to the semi-playoffs by eliminating the gap with the 3rd place Doosan Bears.
SSG’s main hitter Choi Jeong led the way to victory by hitting two home runs in one day.
Choi Jeong-eun, who hit his 27th first-run home run of the season against Hanwha starter Lee Tae-yang in the first inning, hit his 28th home run to increase the score to 5-0 in the third inning.
With a home run in the first inning, Choi Jeong became the protagonist of the sixth home run against his former team this season, and with a home run in the third inning, he achieved his 26th consecutive home run in his career.
While the league’s home run leader Noh Si-hwan (Hanwha) stopped at 31 in the Hangzhou Asian Games, Choi Jeong started to chase by 3.
Immediately after Choi Jeong’s second home run, SSG added 1 point with back-to-back doubles by Guillermo Heredia and Han Yu-seom, and in the 6th inning, Oh Tae-gon hit his 5th one-run home run of the season to take a 7-2 lead, putting a wedge in victory.
SSG starting pitcher Seung-won Moon earned his 5th win of the season by allowing 7 hits, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts, and 2 runs in 6 innings, making his 3rd quality start (within 3 earned runs over 6 innings as a starter) among his last 4 starts.
Hanwha only made up for 2 points with 2 infield ground balls when the bases were loaded with no outs in the 4th inning, and their ranking went down from 8th to 9th.
In Jamsil, the KIA Tigers, who lost Na Seong-beom and Choi Hyeong-woo as well as starting shortstop Park Chan-ho to injury, won 3-2 over the LG Twins and kept their hopes for fall baseball alive.
With this victory, 6th place KIA narrowed the gap with 5th place NC to 3.5 games.
KIA has 8 regular league games left, and NC has 9 games left.
LG, which confirmed first place in the regular league on the 3rd and returned to its home stadium, Jamsil Stadium for the first time, scored the first run in the second inning with leadoff hitter Austin Dean’s triple and Park Dong-won’s sacrifice fly.
In the 7th inning, with one out and runners on 1st and 3rd base, Haemin Park scored an extra run to make it 2-0 with an exquisite bunt infield hit.
The KIA batting lineup, which had been held scoreless until the 6th inning by LG starter Lee Jeong-yong, started to stretch late in the 8th inning.
Leadoff hitter Byun Woo-hyuk’s walk and Kim Gyu-seong’s single put the first and third bases without an out, and then Kim Do-young hit a timely hit with an RBI.
After Park Jeong-woo’s sacrifice bunt put the runners on second and third base with one out, Kim Sun-bin hit a timely hit with two RBIs to turn the game around.
KIA closer Jeong Hae-young, who pitched in the 9th inning, preserved the victory by one run and earned his 19th save of the season.
On this day, Jamsil Stadium was filled with 23,750 spectators.
This is the 42nd sellout in the KBO League this season, and the 6th for LG.
In Suwon, the Samsung Lions won 6-2 over KT Wiz, led by Koo Ja-wook’s hard hitting and rookie Lee Ho-seong’s first win in his debut.
The game was tight in the beginning, but KT’s starting pitcher Wes Benjamin complained of an uncomfortable feeling in his arm, so he pitched only until the second inning and went down the mound, leaning towards Samsung.
Against pitcher Lee Chae-ho, who was replaced in the third inning, Samsung hit two walks and a hit to the body to load the bases with one out, then took the lead with Koo Ja-wook’s two RBI hit.
Then, Kang Min-ho’s sacrifice fly to center field made it 3-0.
In the top of the 5th inning, leadoff hitter Kang Jun-seo’s double and Koo Ja-wook’s timely hit increased the score to 4-0.
KT followed up by 1 run with Hwang Jae-gyun’s 4th 1-run home run of the season in the bottom of the 5th inning and Shin Bon-ki’s sacrifice fly in the 6th inning.
Then, Samsung scored an additional point thanks to메이저놀이터 Koo Ja-wook’s 11th one-run home run of the season in the 8th inning.
Oh Seung-hwan, who achieved 400 career saves for the first time in KBO League history by adding just one save, began to warm up in the bullpen as Samsung led 5-2 until the 8th inning.
However, in the top of the 9th inning, with 2 outs and runners on first base, Jaehyun Lee hit a double to make it 6-2, putting off the achievement of the record until the next opportunity.
Oh Seung-hwan went on the mound in the bottom of the 9th inning and pitched cleanly, allowing no runs in one inning, preserving the team’s victory.
Samsung Koo Ja-wook hit hard with 3 hits and 4 RBIs in 4 at-bats, raising his season batting average to 0.344.
He is only 3 leagues behind the league’s batting leader, Son Ah-seop (NC Dinos, 0.347).
Samsung rookie pitcher Ho-seong Lee earned his first win since his debut with 4 hits (1 home run), 4 walks, 6 strikeouts, and 1 run in 5 innings.